Beach House Family Room Reveal

If you been following along with our beach house makeover, then you know we are doing a room by room facelift of a 1970s  ranch style house located at the Jersey Shore.  At just 1,200 square feet, we have to make every square inch count in terms of functionality!

We worked on the family room at the same time we were working on the kitchen.  It is the first room you come to when you enter from the rear of the home.  It is a narrow space at less than nine feet wide,  but because it is completely open to the kitchen it  doesn’t feel narrow .  Here’s a rough sketch of the space:

So here’s a few BEFORE photos:

This is the view from the rear entry:

This is the view from the kitchen:

Notice the dark paneling, dated gold carpet and an overall drab and tired feel to the space.

The dark paneling and the two different floorings in the kitchen and the family room made it feel like two separate spaces.

And now for the AFTER photos…

The first big change was to paint the walls in SW West Highland white (it took three coats to cover the dark paneling!) and the trim in glossy white.

 The second big change was to install the terracotta ceramic floor tiles, which instantly unified the kitchen and the family room.

The furniture pieces in this room were all thrifted and got a makeover with slipcovers that I sewed up from drop cloths … my go to fabric whenever I need inexpensive fabric to cover large areas!

 Here’s how these pieces looked when we bought them:

And here’s a closeup shot of how they look now.

The off white slipcovers, white walls and the terracotta floor tile became the neutral  backdrop for layering on the mixed shades of blues carried over from the kitchen.

I made the blue and white plaid pillows using Pottery Barn napkins that I found on clearance.  The front is the napkin and the back is drop cloth. They match the cafe curtain in the kitchen, which is simply two PB napkins hung with clip-on rings.

The sofa pillows are from Home Goods, Target and our etsy store.

We also added the bamboo blinds for texture which I purchased from Walmart.com  and  curtain panels for color purchased from Target.

 I love how the curtain panels bring together the three shades of blue used throughout this space as well as the kitchen.  The lamps are from Ikea.  Love the fabric covered cord and the bits of brass on these.  Oh and the curtain rods were from the Habitat Restore.  We simply gave them a coat of glossy black spray paint.

In the foyer area, we added a Pottery Barn coat rack for jackets and totes.  We also made a row of hooks for fishing rods.

We plan to do a storage bench just below the coat rack by hacking  an Ikea  cabinet intended for use over a refrigerator.  I will sew up a cushion for it to give this area a little color.  The bench will help with the shoe clutter that always builds up here…more to come on that in a later post.

What I really like is how this little house can handle a crowd because these two rooms are now unified and function as one large gathering space!

Thanks for staying tuned on our progress … there is lots more to come!